Score
by Jason Tandro
Summary: A magic dragon horn that can grant wishes brings about terrible misfortune to the members of Tantalus.


Score

By: Jason Tandro

_The Target_

The dark streets of Treno were bathed in the unnatural glow of the red moon. It was a rare celestial occasion when the lesser moon, Ulna would pass in front of the greater moon, Panau, creating a red glow. It only happened once every three years. This was a night to remember that the smallest things can bring about great events.

Zidane rested his head against a wooden pier. He was waiting in the docks for his partner, Blank, to show up. Tonight was going to be the night of their big score. The mansion in Treno supposedly had all the wealth of the Lord Estate.

Zidane was a member of the thief troupe Tantalus. They were, officially, an acting troupe operating out of the theatre ship Prima Vista, but anybody who was anybody knew their real face. The plan was quite simple. Zidane and Blank would sneak inside the manor while the other members of Tantalus created a distraction for the town guard by "failing" to rob a well known synthesis shop. Zidane could picture it now: Marcus having a look of cocky self-assurance, Cinna being annoyed that he had (once again) been put in a decoy position, and Ruby watching from the sidelines, shaking her head.

Zidane heard a tapping on the pier next to him. He looked down and saw the partially submerged head of Blank. Zidane glanced around and then jumped in the river. The icy water slapped Zidane's face as they made their way to the lake in the center of Treno.

They passed by a large stone terrace and overhead two nobles talking to a town guard. Blank put his hand in front of Zidane in the water and they stopped.

"Yes, just a moment ago!" exclaimed a woman who was garbed in a red cloak.

"Lowlifes. Who do they think they're dealing with?" the guard cursed as he ran towards the shop.

Blank chuckled to himself as he continued to wade through the water. The center of the lake was well-lit. Blank and Zidane kept near the shore in order to avoid detection. They finally floated in front of the Lord manor. Blank signaled to Zidane and they silently submerged.

Zidane could barely see anything in the murky water, but apparently Blank knew where they were going. He could make out Blank's shadow pulling at something in the water, against the shoreline. He got closer and saw that he was pulling on a sewer grate. He managed to pry it open and it fell slowly to the lakebed. The two thieves swam through the sewer and finally emerged in a smaller waste duct.

"Well, this is a fascinating way to storm a building," Zidane said as he attempted, rather futilely, to shake himself dry.

"It was the only sure route into the Lord Manor without being noticed," Blank explained. "But I'll grant that it lacks style."

"Did you manage to get the floor map?"

"Of course. I never fail." Blank pulled a slightly soggy piece of paper out of his pocket. "It's messy, but it will suffice." He pointed to a small room a short distance from the waste duct. "This is the vault."

"Wonderful. What about the residents?"

"Not a problem we need to be concerned with," Blank glanced through the slits in the grate and, seeing nobody, continued. "There's only one guy living here and he should be asleep by now."

Blank pulled out a small screwdriver and unfastened the bolts in the grate. He pried it open after removing two screws and it landed almost soundlessly in the water below them. Zidane boosted Blank up into the manor and then Blank pulled him inside.

"If we're quick enough, he'll be wondering where the hell his grate is before he knows anything about the treasure," Blank replied.

For an opulent manor, the scenery was depressingly generic. The walls were covered in starchy maroon wallpaper, with the occasional painting hung at clockwork intervals. The two rushed down the hall, only stopping when Blank saw a massive stone wall, underneath a cathedral archway. Blank checked their map and confirmed that this was where the room was supposed to be. Zidane scratched his head, but Blank seemed undisturbed.

"The owner of this house is apparently an accomplished Time Mage," Blank said. "This is merely an illusion."

Blank felt around the cold stone and his hand slipped through in one spot. He smiled and opened the wooden door through the stone. He gestured to Zidane to walk in and then followed behind.

Before them was a dark room which held nothing but a small chest in the back.

"Is this another illusion?" Zidane asked.

"Or that better be one hell of a good treasure," sighed Blank. "The Boss will never forgive us."

"Might as well open it," Zidane sighed.

Blank opened the wooden chest and saw a small horn resting inside. Blank's face lit up. "I don't believe it."

"What is it?" Zidane asked. "It looks like a monster trophy, nothing spectacular."

"This is a legendary item. Don't you know anything about ancient culture?"

"Oh, so now you're a scholar?" Zidane chuckled, trying to relieve the tension he was feeling.

"About treasure, you'd better believe it," Blank replied. "This is a Shield Dragon horn."

"Shield Dragon? I thought those were extinct."

"Indeed they are. Shield Dragon horns are the rarest of all treasure. According to legend, this horn will grant three wishes to the person who finds it. These wishes can be for anything the user desires, but it also warns that your wish must be very specific or else grave misfortune will curse the wish," Blank explained.

"Well I can be plenty specific. Give it to me."

Zidane reached out his hands and Blank pocketed the Shield Dragon horn.

"I don't think so Zidane. We're taking this back to the boss and let him decide what to do with it."

_Analysis_

The thieves' hideout in the grand city of Lindblum was somewhat run-down. It was better that way. An overly elegant place would simply draw attention to the inhabitants whereas an abandoned building didn't really seem important.

It sat on the third level tier of the Theatre District almost directly underneath the Grand Castle of Lindblum. The leader of the thieves, Baku, looked over Blank and Zidane's prize with scrutiny.

"This isn't exactly what I had in mind when I sent you boys in to get treasure," Baku said tersely.

"It must have some value if the owner of the mansion would go through that much trouble to hide it," Cinna noted.

"Three wishes, huh?" Baku scratched his head. "Well let's give it a try then."

Baku walked over to a table and picked up a book. It was torn at the edges and many pages were hanging on by a thread, if not falling out completely. Zidane was confused as to what possible use Baku could put to a book that was in such condition, especially as Baku had many books.

"What are you doing, boss?" Marcus asked.

"I'm testing it," Baku lifted the horn. "Oh Shield Dragon horn, I wish that this book would no longer have pages falling out of it."

Suddenly the book rose to Baku's eye level and began to glow. The phenomena lasted only a few seconds and the book fell back to the table. The cover was still as ratty and the edges of the pages were torn.

"Well that wasn't very impressive," Blank sighed. He picked up the book and attempted to open it, but found that it had been sealed shut.

"What the heck?" Cinna asked. "I thought the boss wished for that thing to be fixed."

"No," Zidane noted. "He just wanted the pages not to fall out. So the horn took this as wanting the book to remain sealed."

And now Zidane understood. It had been a test, and Baku had not wanted to risk anything of value.

"You gotta be very specific when using this thing then," Marcus noted.

Baku nodded. "Hmm… Alright then, enough playing around. Oh Shield Dragon horn, I wish that I had an amount of gil equal to the amount of gil in all of Lindblum!"

The horn glowed and out of the air fell a small sheet of paper. The horn fell on the table again.

"What the heck?" Cinna shouted.

"Might as well read what it says," Blank noted, picking up the paper.

Blank perused the document several times, as if trying to grasp its message.

"What does it say?" Baku asked.

"It's a will, naming you sole heir of a pirate's treasure that was sunk in the ocean. It goes on to say that it is buried at Sea Bearing 41 by 255," Blank explained.

"That's excellent!" Marcus exclaimed. "We'll just hire a treasure hunting ship to help pull it up."

Baku's eyes slipped out of focus for a moment. He walked over to a world map which hung on the far wall, and dragged it over to the table. A few moments passed as Baku used a compass and ruler to chart the Sea Bearing. This ended abruptly when he cursed and slammed his fist on the table.

"Boss, what's the matter?" Cinna asked.

"Zidane, convert the Sea Bearing of ancient times into modern Aerograph for these gentlemen," Blank instructed.

Zidane slid up to the map and made some minor calculations on a sheet of paper next to it. "That's 12.5 by 98.1." He looked at the map again. "Directly underneath the Shimmering Isle in the Lost Continent."

"That's not fair!" Cinna cursed. "We can't get to it!"

"But Baku owns it. That's all that he wished for, and that's all that the horn gave to him," Blank explained.

"No use trying to mess with it. I say we lock it up and try to pawn it off to some greedy idiot. In the meantime nobody is to make a wish, is that understood?" Baku ordered.

The thieves nodded and Baku placed the horn in a glass case in the center of the table.

_The First Wish_

Zidane woke up before any of the other members of Tantalus. He stepped out of his room and gazed out the window on Lindblum. He was a quite simple man, actually. He didn't really care to be wealthy (not that he'd mind it); he just wanted a place of his own with the woman of his dreams. Or women, to be more precise.

Zidane had been told by many people, Ruby in particular, that his tastes deviated even from the deviant and that he would probably never find true love. Not that Zidane cared. Love was for people who also bought the childish fairy stories. It wasn't for him.

It seemed like the only people he had ever loved were his comrades in Tantalus. Sure Marcus and he didn't always see eye-to-eye, Cinna annoyed him and Blank was always busting his chops, but they were his friends.

Ruby was up next, and she walked out next to Zidane. She had gone to bed early after the Treno mission because she had done a lot of the planning work. She walked out wearing her silk pink pajamas. Zidane always thought that was cute. She was a refined, elegant and powerful woman, but went to sleep wearing clothes you normally see young girls in.

"Morning Zidane," Ruby smiled, rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning Ruby. Did you sleep well?" Zidane asked.

"Just fine, Zidane. I don't need any company," Ruby chuckled.

Zidane shrugged his shoulders. "You know me too well. Nice work on the Treno mission. Too bad that prize was a bust."

"Oh, it's fine. I'm cookin' something up for tomorrow," Ruby explained.

"Found somebody who'll buy that horn?" Zidane asked.

"Better. You know I found an old book in the library at the castle. It mentions that a powerful dark mage used to live in the Gulug Mountain on Lost Continent. I figure while we're there, we can see if there is anyway to get below the lake ice in Shimmering Isle and if not then we still have that score," Ruby explained.

"What exactly is the prize?" Zidane asked. He preferred to focus on actual missions instead of hypothetical ones.

"Well, ever since the mines got filled with molten lava, a lot of the areas were cut off. I found an old map leading to the private residence of this mage. We're bound to find some magical artifacts," Ruby explained.

"Um… I don't think Baku will go for it. He's had it up to here with 'magical artifacts', plus we could spend a whole day spelunking for nothing. We're thieves, not treasure hunters," Zidane noted.

Ruby put her head down on the table. "I guess you're right. There's no guarantee or anything. I'll work on some other plan."

Zidane could see a look of annoyance and depression on Ruby's face, her brow narrowed and lips pursed. He felt bad. She seemed to get upset so easily these days. She had told him in secret that she wanted to leave Tantalus and open up a theatre. He told her it was impractical and that she was better off where she was. He didn't want to hurt her feelings. He just didn't want her to leave. He figured, if it would make her happy, he'd do anything to help her. It wasn't love or any of that nonsense. He just cared about her. She was his friend too, after all.

His eyes glanced over to Shield Dragon horn. It sat in the case. He had been told not to use it, but maybe if the wish wasn't a selfish one, it would work.

Ruby stood up and walked out of the room. "I'd better get to work on that new mission."

Zidane glanced around the corner to make sure she had gone. He re-entered the room the moment that he heard the footsteps stop. A chair was dragged across the floor and he heard furious pen scratches a moment later as well as the sound of pages flipping.

Zidane picked up the horn. "I wish that Ruby would become the owner of her own theatre."

The horn didn't glow, and rested where Zidane laid it a few moments later. Did it not work? Maybe the horn couldn't grant a wish about another person. He put the glass case back on it and heard a crash from a room in the back. Zidane ran back to Baku's bedroom and saw that he had hit his head on the corner of his dresser.

"Somebody get in here!" Zidane shouted.

Ruby was the first to arrive and Blank shortly thereafter. Blank rolled Baku over, but blood was all over his face. He was barely recognizable. Zidane put his head on Baku's chest. He wasn't breathing, and his pulse had stopped.

"Oh my God…" Blank uttered. Cinna and Marcus came rushing into the room.

"What happened?" Marcus asked. He looked down and saw Baku. "What the hell?!"

"He must have tripped on his way out of bed…" Zidane said putting his head in his hands and trying not to sob.

Blank noticed something in Baku's hand. It was a freshly written note. Blank picked it up and read it.

"My treasure I leave with all my children, but the Prima Vista is Ruby's," Blank read.

Zidane's blood ran cold and he froze, staring at the lifeless body of his boss and mentor. How could his selfless wish for Ruby's happiness have led to this?

_Aftermath_

Of course, Tantalus could not call a physician, but they knew a white mage who lived nearby. He came over to the hideout and checked out Baku. He observed the body for an hour but then came out with the bad news.

"He cannot be revived. His injury was no accident, it was intentional and it was most likely self-inflicted," the white mage explained.

"How can that be?" Cinna asked.

"I don't know what was going through Baku's head, but self-inflicted wounds, especially mortal ones, cannot be undone by White Magic. It is known as Torna's Law," the white mage elaborated. "I can perform a sending, if you wish."

"That would be best," Marcus nodded. "You were one of his closest friends in life; it makes sense for you to guide him in death."

Ruby was lying in her room. She had been there since Blank had read the note. Zidane heard sobbing coming from her room, muffled slightly by her pillow. His heart could barely stand it. Had he not played with that cursed item, this would have never happened. It's as though he slew Baku himself.

"I'm going to go comfort Ruby," Zidane said.

Blank looked up. Zidane almost thought that he was going to have the nerve and callousness to make a crude joke, but he just nodded and patted Zidane's arm. "Please, do."

Zidane walked down the hallway and heard the white mage begin chanting. He knocked on the door. A weak, lifeless voice answered: "Come in."

Ruby was lying in bed holding an emerald necklace in her hand. Zidane remembered that token well. It was the first mission that Ruby had ever planned. They robbed a massive treasure trove in Burmecia, and Baku had picked out that necklace specifically for Ruby. He told her that she was officially a member of Tantalus, and he called her his daughter.

This meant a lot, to be called Baku's child. Every member of Tantalus was an orphan. Some might see that as Baku exploiting sad children, but he gave them a home.

Zidane remembered one day he tried to run away. He was searching for his home, but the only clue he had to go on was a color. Blue. He took to the ocean, but found nothing. He returned to Tantalus, the only place he knew for certain he was welcome. And of course Baku knocked him around a bit. You don't just run away from Tantalus. But then, he hugged Zidane. He realized then that he didn't need to find his home. He was there.

"They're performing the sending now," Zidane explained.

Ruby nodded. "That's good. Terran is a good man. Baku would have wanted it that way."

Zidane forced a smile. "Yeah, that's what Marcus said."

Ruby crawled across the bed and hugged Zidane. Zidane closed his eyes. He couldn't stand it. She saw him as an object of affection. Her friend, somebody who would make her pain go away. She had no idea that he had caused her pain. He hugged her back.

"You're the leader of Tantalus now. We'll follow you wherever you go, Ruby," Zidane said.

"I don't want that," Ruby said.

Zidane didn't understand her meaning, but continued to hold onto her.

"I'm going to miss you, Zidane. Most of all," Ruby said. She stood up and escorted Zidane out. He looked at her across the frame. Those brilliant cunning eyes that he had remembered; they were gone. He was entranced the entire time until the door shut completely.

_The Second Wish_

Ruby didn't leave her room for several days. It wasn't that odd though. Nobody had even left the hideout since Baku died. According to his last wishes, Ruby was in charge of Tantalus. She was the boss now, and nobody made a move without her instructions.

As the fourth day passed into night, Zidane grew steadily more restless. He pondered over the words that he had last exchanged with Ruby. His mind went from one possibility to another, but none made any sense.

He awoke in the middle of the night. Panau hung in the sky, bathing the world in a deep blue. He looked at the great grandfather clock in the corner. It was four in the morning. He rolled out of the bench he'd fallen asleep on and walked back to his room. He stopped in the middle of the hall when he heard gasping from Ruby's room.

He opened the door and saw Ruby lying on the floor in front of her bed, with a dagger stuck in her chest.

"Ruby, no!" Zidane shouted. He reached down and pulled the blade out of her chest. Blood burst from her heart like a fountain. He tore off his blue vest and wrapped it around her wound. "Ruby, I'm going to fix you. Don't worry. I'll undo this. I'll make you happy again, I swear it!"

Ruby shook her head. "Zidane, please have Terran send me. I'll leave you Tantalus. Remember that I loved you as much as my brother."

Zidane shook his head. "I won't let you die. It was my fault that Baku died. I should be dying, not you!"

Ruby's hand slipped away and breath escaped her. Two minutes ticked on the clock out in the main room. Zidane stopped sobbing and stood up. "I won't let you be dead."

He rushed out the main room and grabbed the dragon horn. "I want Ruby to be alive again. I just want Ruby to be alive again!" He repeated these words several times to himself. The horn glowed faintly but then fell to the ground.

_The Third Wish_

Zidane woke an hour later. He heard sobbing coming from Ruby's room. Zidane pocketed the horn and walked back to the room. Had the horn actually worked? No, something was awry. What abomination had Zidane's recklessness brought about this time?

"Ruby?" Zidane asked cautiously.

He opened the door and saw Ruby lying on the ground. But it wasn't Ruby. Her eyes were pitch black and her skin was pale. Her beautiful hair had fallen out and the fat around her bones seemed to disintegrate. Blood remained stagnant around her wound.

"I was happy, Zidane," the ghoulish figure said in a cracked voice. "You thought you knew what was best for me. You thought you knew what would make me happy. You took other people's lives into your own hands. All it brought was death."

The monstrous figure crawled towards Zidane. Sinew dripped with each step that it took as it paced towards him like a spider approaching a trapped fly. A sinister grin was the only thing this creature now wore. Its clothes had melted and the ribs protruded through its breast-less chest.

"Come on, Zidane. Isn't this what you always wanted?" The creature laughed mockingly. "Help me sleep tonight."

Zidane stood there, a look of horror and torment overcoming him. He screamed out. "I wish I'd never found this damn horn!"

The horn fizzled and then shattered. Ruby stood in front of him, her original beauty restored. She smiled and laughed.

"Getting a little desperate aren't we Zidane?" Ruby chuckled, covering her nude form with a blanket.

"Ruby, are you…?"

"Annoyed that you tried to barge into my room in the middle of the night, yeah. But what can I say, I'm also a little flattered," Ruby laughed. "Come here."

Zidane hugged Ruby, caressing her soft skin with tears rolling down his eyes. Suddenly the skin began to fade. Bones began to protrude, the warmth of her body became the bitter cold of death. He could not see it, but he knew that the creature was grinning with that bony smile and its black eyes lit up.

"Why, damn it, why?" Zidane cried.

"Because Zidane," the creature said in Ruby's voice. "You never found the horn. Blank did."

The sound of Zidane's screaming was not enough to awaken the other members of Tantalus, who had seemed to have fallen into heavy, sorrowful sleep.


End file.
